OSSINING, N.Y. – An Ossining community group is asking parents to help stop underage drinking by taking a survey on their attitudes about teen alcohol use.

The survey was recently posted on the Internet by Ossining Communities That Care, a grant-funded organization that provides prevention programs related to teen drinking and drug usage in Ossining. It is offered through Drug and Alcohol Free Youth, a county-wide coalition aimed at making parents and teens more aware of the effects of drinking and drugs. Parents can take the survey by clicking here.

“In order to maintain our grant funding and establish goals for our prevention programs in Ossining, we are required to benchmark current attitudes and concerns within the community through research tools,” said Ossining CTC chair Alice Joselow. “Our current parent survey is falling far short of the necessary response needed to provide reliable data, and we need all of the help we can get from our parents.”

The survey, which will be available until Friday, Dec. 14, allows parents to provide input for underage drinking campaigns in Ossining, Joselow said. The responses will help shape future advertising campaigns similar to one recently installed at the Ossining Train Station.

The campaign focuses on teen binge drinking, Joselow said, citing a recent study by the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolecscent Medicine showing that kids who started drinking before age 15 were five times more likely to develop alcohol abuse than people who start at age 21.

“We’re trying to break the myth that kids drinking is OK and that kids can just sleep it off,” Joselow said. “The reality is that if the kid is passed out, then he drank so much that his body shut down. We feel it’s important for both kids and parents to understand that the only person who should make the decision of a kid sleeping it off is that child’s parent.”